A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF A SEMI-ACTIVE DIFFERENTIAL ON THE VEHICLE BEHAVIOUR WITH A SOFTWARE-IN-THE-LOOP APPROACH

In the automotive field the growing interest for the enhancement of the passengers’ safety and, at the same time, of the performances has led to invest resources in the development of active control systems. In this paper is shown an original semi-active car differential, actuated through an electro-hydraulic control system, which is able to continuously manage the torque distribution among the driving wheels. Thanks to this feature, in addition to an enhancement of the tractive capabilities, there is the possibility to influence the vehicle attitude improving the handling. As the functioning is strongly influenced by the control algorithm embedded, the main target of this research has been the assessment of its actual capabilities by testing different control logics. The results illustrated were obtained using an advanced numerical approach known as Software-in-the-Loop.